Relief in Seven Years of Stable Money 185 
Commission and has just concluded a study of the 
finances of China for its government, emphasizes this 
unstable quality of purchasing power of currency 
units in all his reports as financial adviser to a dozen 
European, South American, and African nations. 
Dr. Kemmerer recently said: 
“The gyrations in the value of the gold dollar since 
the end of the last century have been fully as vio- 
lent as during any equal periods in the history of 
our country. Between 1900 and the beginning of 
the World War, the purchasing power of the dollar 
fell 18 per cent. From 1914 to 1920, it fell §7 
per cent, or, from 1896 to 1920, over 70 per cent. 
From the middle of 1920 to September, 1928, the 
purchasing power of the dollar rose 56 per cent, but 
it is still 44 per cent less than in 1896. It is to this 
unsteady monetary unit that our financial and eco- 
nomic systems are tied.” 
Professor Kemmerer goes on to show that innu- 
merable contracts, which are promises to pay a 
given number of dollars at future dates—go days, 
six months, or in terms of years—divide the nation 
into debtors and creditors. A depreciating dollar, 
one that buys constantly less goods, robs the credi- 
tors and the wage-earning and salaried classes for 
the advantage of the debtors. An appreciating dol- 
lar robs the debtors for the advantage of the credi- 
tors. Dr. W. I. King has estimated that this whole- 
sale robbery took place in a period of five years in 
the United States to the extent of $40,000,000,000. 
But since 1922, thanks to measures of control